At 8:05 am on a nippy Saturday morning in March, Irene Jeong got on a Flixbus at Paris’s Bercy Bourgogne and four hours later, pulled into Brussels. Instead of checking in at a hotel, she immediately got to walking around the city to visit the Belgian capital’s major landmarks such as the Manneken Pis, St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, Parc de Bruxelles – getting a nice mix of nature and architecture. While checking off these stops, she also stopped by several vintage shops to sift through some clothing pieces and shoes, taking food breaks in between to rejuvenate with infamous Belgian specialties such as waffles and fries. She then navigated her way around to the Brussels train station, taking the Eurostar to reach back to her dorm room in Paris at around 11 pm – just in time to sleep in her own bed.
While studying abroad at New York University in Paris, Jeong has taken several day trips, both within France and its neighboring countries such as Belgium and Switzerland. She describes her day trips as more of a “mission,” rather than a holiday. “It’s tiring, but I kind of feel this sense of accomplishment by going to more places,” Jeong said. She admits that the visit is more “surface level” but justifies it by saving money by not staying in a hostel or hotel.
While day trips are not necessarily a new idea, a recent trend of “extreme day trips” has flooded social media. Especially common among young people and students, these day trips involve taking round trips to new countries, often via flights. The Wall Street Journal reported that “the Facebook group Extreme Day Trips counts 314,000 members, many of whom regularly hop around Europe on budget carriers like Ryanair and easyJet.”
Content creator Kevin Droniak maxed a day trip with a round trip from New York City to Cairo in 24 hours, with each flight spanning approximately 10 hours. He used the time difference between the countries to his advantage and made the most of an entire day in Egypt. He ticked Egypt off his bucket list and visited the pyramids, viewed monumental religious texts, enjoyed trying food like hawawshi and did some light shopping. “I’ve always dreamed of going to the pyramids of Giza and when I found a cheap-ish round trip flight for $800, I was like ‘Why not?’” Droniak said. “It was appealing to go for the day because I knew all I wanted to see was the pyramids and people said it only takes a day to do.”
shared to Instagram about his travel experience
Droniak tallied the total cost of his trip to Egypt at $1,192 – a price he claims on Instagram is “so worth it to me because I have a memory that I will cherish for the rest of my life and I think it is money well spent.” This mindset has further encouraged Droniak to visit other such places – such as Paris, Montréal and Puerto Rico – from New York City in a day.
While college students can’t afford such trips, those at study-abroad sites usually figure out a way to maximize their time and save money.
Marisa Sandoval was able to access a relatively affordable day trip to Oman from Abu Dhabi (where she currently studies) via a drive and a boat ride. The total travel time back and forth was approximately 7 hours, and she was able to make lifelong memories during the remainder of her time in Oman. “I was in awe of its beauty,” Sandoval said about the Middle Eastern country where she got to swim in the Gulf and to see dolphins in the water. “You’re exhausted by the end of the day, but it’s so worth it to have the opportunity to see a place even if it’s for a couple hours. For me, it still feels like I’m going on vacation because I’m choosing to be there.”
When it comes to visiting a new place, Sandoval shares Anthony Bourdain’s sentiment of not being a tourist, but a traveller, and is not in a rush to necessarily tick off all the touristy spots. “Wherever I travel, I always try to go see a museum or taste the specialty food of the country, even if I’m there for only a few hours, because I think it’s really important to see the history of a place and to really understand its culture.”
Travel – even if it’s simply for a day – can have a positive impact on people’s mental health. “Travel, for people who enjoy traveling, can be a huge source of de-stressing and regulating oneself, specifically because it takes you away from the space where you are regularly,” Rayna Mehta – a mental health practitioner in India – said. “It gives you something new and stimulating, and it can be quite a refresher to be physically out of that space and experience new sensory experiences which can regulate the nervous system.”
In search of a similar novel experience, NYU student Jonathan Mak and his friends drove six hours each way from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in the same day to watch major artists such as the 1975 and Sabrina Carpenter perform at a music festival there. In addition to saving money by driving instead of taking a 45-minute flight, Mak and his friends also cut travel costs by not booking a hotel. “We didn’t really want to pay for accommodation because hotels get a little expensive and hostels aren’t that great,” Mak said. “The only thing we were paying for was gas.”
Mak is spending a study abroad semester in Buenos Aires from where he recently took a 24 hour trip to Ilhabela in Brazil for a friend’s birthday. “I don’t know when I’ll ever have the chance to come down here again,” Mak said. “I kind of imagine people in the future asking me ‘What did you do during your semester abroad?’ so I’m trying to tick things off and get out of my comfort zone by seeing the world.”